


Howling to the moon

by Bouncy_cat



Series: Howling to the moon [1]
Category: Hawaii Five-0 (2010)
Genre: Alternate Universe, Dom/sub Undertones, M/M, Shapeshifting, Werewolves
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2012-02-13
Updated: 2013-06-17
Packaged: 2017-10-31 01:55:41
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 10
Words: 18,863
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/338598
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Bouncy_cat/pseuds/Bouncy_cat
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Alternate universe of shapeshifters. </p><p>Steve creates his own little pack, but there's something wrong with Danny...</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Chapter 1

Even through the sound of his father’s voice, and the crackling of the tape, Steve heard the soft sound of the door being opened. Whoever it was was making an effort to be quiet. Automatically he tilted his head, trying to track the intruder’s progress.  It was a lot less efficient in this shape. Human ears really weren’t made for efficient tracking.

Quickly and quietly he shut off the recorder and repacked the toolbox, and then he turned to face the intruder head on.

“You, hands up,” a short blonde man shouted as he busted into the garage.

As soon as Steve spotted the gun he whipped out his own, aiming at the centre of the man’s forehead. He was not in the mood for games, if this was one of the bad guys, he would shoot to kill. 

“Don’t move!”

“Who are you?” Steve demanded.

“Who are you?” the blonde guy countered, but immediately after he answered the question. “I am detective Danny Williams-” 

“Lieutenant Commander Steve McGarret”

“Put you weapon down, right now!”

“No, you put _your_ weapon down, and show me your ID!”

The demands from both sides increased in volume as they each tried to get the other to give in first. Steve moved forward, approaching the other guy, but the blonde backed away.

That was when the scent hit Steve. This guy was one of his own kind. For some reason the realisation calmed him down some. “I’m not putting my gun down,” he stated.

“Neither am I,” the blonde, _Danny_ , answered.

“Use your free hand, take out your ID.” Steve ordered.

“Please, after you.”

Steve held back an exasperated sigh. “At the same time?” he suggested.

“At the same time?”

“Yeah, at the same time!” Steve did not like this Danny guy’s tone.

“What…like at the count of three?”

“Sure, okay, three’s good.”

“One”

Steve watched like a hawk while Danny moved his hand to the side and down. He mirrored the movement, but kept his full attention on the man standing in front of him. 

At ‘two’ they both had their ID’s up and Steve could see the Honolulu P.D. badge. The ‘three’ Danny muttered came out sounding half relieved, half embarrassed. He seemed to hesitate for half a second, but then he visibly gathered himself up and continued. “Listen, I’m really sorry about your father but you can’t be here right now, this is an active crime scene.”

Steve watched while Danny spoke, the other man’s entire stance was apologetic and Steve knew it wasn’t just because of his father. This was one of those situations where the two cultures they were both part of collided. The human side of Danny probably insisted that he was a detective and that he needed to keep his crime scene safe from people who didn’t know what they were doing. That side of him would think he had every right to be here in Steve’s dad’s garage. But his other side…his other side would be acutely aware of the fact that he was intruding, quite violently, in another male’s territory. A male who was bigger, stronger and faster than him and who would be completely within his rights if he wanted to forcibly remove Danny from the house.

The temptation was there of course, but the apology in Danny’s voice mollified Steve a little. He gestured vaguely to the rest of the garage. “Doesn’t seem that active.” Even as he said it he could feel his temper rising again.  Why was there no one here beside this haole cop? There should have been an entire team of people here, going over the place with a fucking microscope or something.

“I can’t share any information with you-”

“Hesse wasn’t here alone when my father was murdered,” Steve interrupted, “someone was sitting at the desk in the study, there was a space cleared for a thirteen inch laptop and my father hated computers.” He saw Danny swallow, saw in his eyes that he wanted to discuss Steve’s theories. He didn’t though.

“I’m gonna ask you again…” Danny said, voicing it as a statement rather than a question, “you gotta leave.”

Frustrated about the lack of response, Steve grabbed to toolbox. “You’ve got it.”

“And you can leave the box. That is evidence. You know that.” Frustration coloured Danny’s voice.

Steve directed a cold smile at the annoying detective. “I came with this,” he lied, gesturing to the toolbox.

“ _No_.  You didn’t come with it.  I can see the dust void it left right here on the counter. What’s in the box? What are you hiding?”

Steve countered with his own question, one that not so-subtly showcased his lack of faith in the other man’s abilities. “How long have you been with Honolulu P.D.?

The volume went up again. “None of your business. What are you, Barbara Walters?”

Steve tried to keep a grin off his face. Seemed like he hit a nerve there. “No. It _is_ my business if you’re investigating my father’s death.”

 

“I _am_. And I’d like to get back to that. So the sooner you leave the sooner I can!”

 

“Anything you say.” Steve said, not even trying to keep the sarcasm from his voice.  He turned to leave, toolbox still in hand.

“Leave the box or get arrested. Alright?” Danny said, tension dripping from his voice.

Steve’s temper flared. He could hear in the detective’s voice that he wasn’t at all happy about having to confront him, but Steve needed that box and this… _runt_ …was challenging him in his own territory. “You gonna call for back-up?” With that one sentence he let the guy know that he wasn’t giving up the box without a fight, and they both knew Danny wouldn’t be a match for Steve without help.

“An ambulance.” Danny mumbled.

The guarded look on Danny’s face gave Steve pause. If they continued on this track one of them was going to get injured, most likely Danny, and despite his irritation with the guy, part of him realized he was just trying to do his job the way he’d been taught. He was a bit anal about it, yeah, but that didn’t make him a bad guy and despite the challenge and the annoyance, he didn’t particularly want to hurt him. Maybe there was another way though, one that would ensure that Steve got his way and that would allow Danny to give in without compromising his precious work ethic.

One short phone call to the governor later, the case was his and he’d be lying if he said he didn’t feel some satisfaction when he walked out of there with his father’s toolbox and left detective Danny Williams standing empty-handed in the garage with his arms crossed defensively.

Of course he felt just a little bit like a dick after talking to Danny’s captain and finding out that Danny had been putting some real effort into Steve's father’s case. He was going to need the information Danny had dug up so far and he was probably going to need the man’s skills and experience too. The decision was quickly made.  He was going to make the other man his partner. Whether they would actually be able to work together depended entirely on Danny’s attitude. In human terms, Steve was the boss, and on the shifter side of the equation Steve was definitely the alpha. He could accept a little mouthing off and if Danny had a valid point Steve would listen, but if Steve gave an order he expected it to be followed. The only question was, would Danny follow him?

\------------------------------------------------

It was pouring outside when Steve got out of the cab he’d taken to Danny’s home. He rushed to the door and gave a short brisk knock. The door opened almost immediately and when Danny opened the door Steve knew why. As small as this apartment was, it was physically impossible to be far from the door at any moment. It really was the shittiest apartment he’d ever seen.

As soon as the door opened he waved the case file in Danny’s face, stated his questions and walked in. There was none of the polite ceremony their kind usually adhered to. He didn’t ask for permission to enter the other’s territory, and as soon as he was in he started touching stuff. Usually that was another big no-no.  

In this case, it was a test.  

And Danny responded beautifully.

Sure there was a little posturing, a little back-talking, but as soon as Steve ordered Danny to ‘enlighten him’ about the case, his gaze dropped down for a moment and he started talking.

When Steve suggested they go talk to Duran, Danny started sputtering again. “Whoa hoh, are you suffering from dementia?  This is no longer my case!”

“The captain said you transferred in from New Jersey six months ago, so you eye’s still fresh”

“You know, uh, I appreciate it, but my psych eval is not for six weeks-”

Steve interrupted him. “Fold-up bed, no ring on your finger, you obviously moved here to be close to your daughter, which means in between visits all you got is your job and you take pride in it. That’s what I’m looking for.” He turned towards the door, expecting Danny to follow.

“Yeah, but you know what,” Danny said, “it’s guys like you who think they know how to do everything better and that only makes my job harder.”

Steve could hear the frustration just dripping from Danny’s voice. Sounded as if he’d dealt with ‘guys like him’ before and it didn’t go too well. The thing was though, what happened before had no bearing on what was happening right then and Danny was just going to have to suck it up. “You’ve got no choice detective.” Steve said with a certain level of satisfaction. “The governor gave me jurisdiction and I’m making you my partner.” He looked Danny straight in the eyes and let a little bit of a challenge shine through. “We’re going to get along great.”

He walked out and hid his grin when Danny followed him only a few seconds later. So far so good.

In the car Danny seemed to relax a little, maybe because driving offered him some form of control. Steve decided to allow it for now and made himself comfortable in his seat, which seemed to calm Danny even further. He even answered Steve’s question about his ex-wife, opening up a little about how his marriage had ended. Then Danny’s kid called. It was a good sign for their future partnership that Danny already felt safe enough in Steve’s presence to practically babytalk to his daughter. It was only when Steve asked who ‘Danno’ was that the man clammed up again.

“Don’t.”

“Hnn?” Steve gave his partner a curious look.

“Just-” Danny shook his head.

“Okay.” Steve agreed easily.  There would be time enough in the future to learn more about his new partner.

“Thank you.”

The quiet thanks took Steve a little by surprise. Danny sounded like he meant it. Like he knew Steve could have pushed the issue and he was grateful that he hadn’t. In a way it was an acceptance of their roles. Basically, Danny had just acknowledged that Steve had the right to ask questions like that and expect an answer. The acceptance put Steve at ease too and the rest of the drive passed in a comfortable silence.

Then of course their first real police work together went to hell in a handbasket.

Danny got grazed, Duran took a hostage and in the end Danny put a bullet through the man’s head to prevent him from shooting Steve. It was an ugly situation and Steve hadn’t handled it well. It irked him that maybe he should have listened to Danny when he said to wait for back up, but hell, this case was personal and Steve’s patience wasn’t what it normally was. 

He was so focused on connecting the dots between Hesse and Duran that he didn’t notice his new partner getting worked up. When Danny said he should thank him for saving his life, he didn’t recognize the remark for what it actually was. Danny was asking for acknowledgement, reassurance even. The correct answer would have been somewhere along the lines of ‘it’s okay you shot him, you did it to save my life. Thanks’.

Instead he focused on the negative, that their only lead in his father’s murder investigation was now dead, and Danny’s remark about him being pretty dense for someone who had just lost his father just pushed a whole lot of buttons that didn’t need pushing right then. Steve flipped. “What did you say? What did you just say to me?!”

Then when Danny started getting in his face the rage just took over. “I’m warning you,” Steve nearly growled, “take your finger out of my face”.

Danny ignored the warning signs. “Listen to me! You son of a bitch”

The words Steve could have ignored, but when the finger Danny had been waving in his face poked his chest he lost it. With one smooth, practiced move, he had Danny on his knees with his arms bent backwards in position that he knew from experience was extremely painful. “What did I tell you,” he said through gritted teeth, “I warned you, in front of all these nice people.”

Two police officers approached hesitantly. “It’s fine,” he told them, ignoring Danny hissing in pain beneath him. “Go back to work.  It’s fine.” The look in his face was enough to make them back off.

“Now,” he continued to Danny, “you don’t have to like me, but right now there’s no one else to do this job.”

“Okay,” Danny finally said, voice strained from the pain. “Let me go.”

Steve felt a fierce sense of satisfaction at Danny’s submission.

It was short-lived, because a moment later Danny turned and punched him. “You’re right,” he heard the other man mumble as he walked away. “I don’t like you.”

Back in the car, when he’d calmed down, Steve wanted to punch himself too. The rapport he’d built with Danny before was gone. He’d screwed this up. As Danny’s boss, hell…as alpha…, he had responsibilities. Danny was his responsibility.  That meant making sure he didn’t get hurt if it was at all avoidable. It also meant making sure that Danny knew what was expected of him, and letting him know whether he was doing a good job. In his preoccupation with Hesse and Duran he’d failed at all three today. He’d gotten Danny shot, he hadn’t taken a single moment to talk about a plan or explain to Danny what he wanted from him,  and afterwards he’d let Danny stew and he’d been too pissed off and frustrated to have a normal conversation with the man. _Way to fuck up a partnership_.

When they’d been on the road for a while and he’d given Danny some time to cool down he cautiously tried to open the lines of communication again. “How’s the arm?”

Danny wasn’t having it. “Let’s just not talk.”

“You mean right now, or ever again?”

“Just…both, okay?”

The two of them not talking was not what Steve had planned. He had the feeling that if he allowed Danny to create distance, their chances of working together successfully would become slim to none. No, Danny needed to vent, and he needed to do it now.  All Steve had to do was to give him an excuse to rant. “You know what,” he said, “I think I might now why your wife left you.”

“Really?!”

Steve had to bite back a smile. “Yeah, you’re very sensitive.”

And Danny was off. “Sensitive huh?  You think I’m sensitive? When did you come to the conclusion that I am sensitive? Huh?  Was it when a bullet was tearing through my flesh?  Was that when I seemed sensitive to you? Huh? I am _really_ happy that you are not afraid of anything. Okay? I’m glad you have that G.I. Joe thousand yard stare from chasing shoe bombers around the world. But in civilized society we have _rules_. It’s the unspoken glue that separates us from jackals and hyena’s, alright?”

Steve couldn’t keep the amusement from his voice. “Jackals and hyena’s?”

“Animal planet! Whatever, okay?! The point is, rule number one, if you get someone shot, you apologize!”

And that was his cue. “I’m sorry.” Steve said, and he meant it.

Danny didn’t seem to hear though, he just kept ranting. “You don’t wait for a special occasion-”

“Sorry.”

“-like birthdays-”

“Sorry.”

“-freaking presidents day-”

“Hey man, I’m sorry, okay?  I said I’m sorry, I’m sincerely sorry. That was what I was trying to tell you…last year…when this conversation first started.”

That seemed to have taken the wind out of Danny’s sails. He watched the man struggle for a bit.  It was ridiculously easy to read the emotions playing out on his face.

Finally Steve got his answer. “Your apology is noted,” Danny said. “Acceptance is pending.

Steve decided to accept that, after all, he had fucked up rather badly.  He would need to earn back Danny's trust.

\----------------------------------------------------------------------

Chin Ho Kelly was another shifter. Steve had known this from the moment he’d been introduced to him years ago.  Chin had still been a rookie back then. It was a bit of a gamble to ask him to join their task-force. Not just because of Chin’s past, but because if he agreed to join they’d have a task force consisting of three shifters already.

Steve had no idea whether the governor even knew who on this island was a shifter, she was a regular human herself after all. If she did know, or found out somehow …he had no idea whether she would object. It wasn’t unusual in the military branches to form groups of shifters. Their kind did tend to gravitate towards each other and the bonds they formed were strong, whether they were mating bonds or bonds of friendship. But he wasn’t forming a SEAL team right now, he was setting up a task force of cops, and cops were subject to the rules of _civilized society_ , as Danny called it, to a far greater extend than any SEAL team. Danny seemed pretty set on proper procedures and the like though, so maybe he could keep them all in line.

Chin agreed to join their task force and Steve could tell from the gratitude in his eyes and the way the way they were about to spill over, that Chin would follow him anywhere. Danny meanwhile, quietly…well not exactly quietly, more like loudly but resignedly, followed his lead.

When Steve saw Chin’s cousin, Kono, punch the guy who’d cut into her wave, he knew they’d found the final member of their task force. And of course, she was a shifter too. Steve finally had to admit to himself that yes, he’d created an impromptu shifter pack. And it might not be entirely unrelated to the fact that he missed his old pack…his team.

It would take time to build bonds strong enough to rival those of his old pack, but with these four, it might actually work.


	2. Chapter 2

Kono and Chin accepted their place in the newly formed pack as easily as if they always knew they belonged there, and they were just waiting for Steve to arrive and make it a reality.

Danny though, Danny was a whole different story. Steve just couldn’t figure him out. Sometimes he seemed totally acceptant of his role, appreciative even, like when he accepted that hotel voucher for him and Grace. It had been Steve’s way of saying _‘look, your daughter is pack too; I’ll take care of both of you’_ and Danny had accepted gracefully, thanked him. _Accepted the implied claim._ Or at least, Steve thought he did.  

But other times his partner was confrontational and pushy, acting like he _wasn’t_ part of their pack…like he was still alone. Making displays of dominance that didn’t make much sense to Steve.

If another male wanted the position of alpha, normally their kind would battle it out and one would back down and accept his place in the pack. In this case it would be a fight Steve already knew he’d win. It never came to that though, because Danny simply never followed through.  He got loud and in Steve’s face, but in the end he always backed down and followed Steve’s lead. Danny’s behavior was odd, to say the least, _confused_ almost.  Steve didn’t really mind though, he enjoyed a challenge and a mystery, and Danny was both.

After they’d successfully rescued Roland Laurie and his son, they had their first formal recognition of their pack, holding their own private graduation ceremony for Kono. It felt good to make it official. They couldn’t say anything specific in public of course, secrecy was drilled into all of them pretty much from birth. Any public mention of anything outside the realm of normal human interactions was severely discouraged. They all _knew_ though. They all felt the bonds between them strengthening quickly.

Not too long after, but still too long for Steve’s liking, he finally got to meet the fifth member of his pack when all of them went to a high school football game together.

It was unmistakable that she was Danno’s, not so much from her looks as from her smile and her smell. Her smell was fainter, like it always was in those who hadn’t reached their first shift yet, but it was there and it unquestionably marked her as Danny’s blood. “Hey, Gracie,” he said, when she sat down on the bench in front of him. “I’m Steve.  It’s great to meet you finally. Your daddy talks about you all the time.”

“He talks about you a lot too,” she answered with the open, innocent, yet mischievous sort of smile that Danny must have had when he was a kid.

Steve grinned at her. “Really?”

“We commiserate, it’s a father-daughter thing,” Danny said, but he was smiling and relaxed and Steve decided not to grill Gracie for details although he was curious as hell about what Danny had been saying about him.

Kono introduced herself and then Chin spoke up and Steve couldn’t keep a smile off his face when he introduced himself as ‘uncle Chin’.  The entire team was claiming Danny’s daughter as pack.

“Are you a football player?” Grace asked Chin.

“I used to be, I used to play quarterback for that red team.” Chin said, pointing out into the field.

“He was a legend too,” Steve added, “until I came along and shattered all his records.” He winked at Grace and was thrilled when she returned his fist bump. He hadn’t really realized how nervous he’d been about meeting Grace until he felt the relief coursing through him at their easy camaraderie.

There had never been any question about him accepting Grace, she could have been an obnoxious little hellion and it wouldn’t have made a difference, she was Danny’s after all. But there had been no guarantee she’d accept them in return.

He watched her work her ‘puppy-dog eyes’ magic on a totally defenseless Danny with a strangely warm feeling in his chest, happy about getting to spend a couple of hours of down-time with his pack.

But of course...everything went to hell. The criminal element of Oahu couldn’t even give them half a day without stirring up some kind of shit.  

His phone rang and when he picked it up he expected nothing more than a question from Danny about whether he wanted a normal serving or an extra large serving of nachos, or maybe if he wanted spicy or extra spicy sauce. He heard the tension in his partner’s voice though, as soon as he spoke the first word.

“Hey.  I’m right in front of you,” Danny said, “got two guys headed onto the field.  Strapped. Think something’s about to go down.”

Steve shot up, immediately disliking the fact that Danny was already down there, while the rest of them were still in the stands. “We got trouble,” he said, getting Chin in gear with just a look. “Kono, call HPD for back-up,” he ordered. Both he and Chin were down from the stands in a flash, following Danny out onto the field.

Once one of the thugs pulled a gun and started shooting it was all over really fast.  Danny put him down and as soon as the situation was somewhat under control Steve acknowledged his partner’s panicked look. “Go,” he said. “ _Go_. Go get Grace.” Because even if logic dictated that Gracie had been far away from the shooting and Danny’s help was more needed on the field, his partner’s daughter was already way higher up Steve’s priority list than random strangers.

Danny had handled things really well, and without him the whole situation would have turned out much worse, so it seriously pissed Steve off to hear Danny’s anger, desperation and resignation when he was on the phone with his ex. Even more so later on in the car when Danny got the call from the lawyer about visitation. Steve had never seen a more dedicated father than Danny. Rachel trying to take Grace away from him made Steve’s blood boil, made him want to rip her throat out. Gracie wouldn’t appreciate it though and neither would Danny probably, so he reined his temper in as best he could, and handled it in a civilized way. _Effective, but no where near as satisfying_.

Danny’s heartfelt thanks made him feel ten feet tall though, and he impulsively decided to address his partner’s inconsistent behavior towards him. “Let me ask you something,” he said, holding onto Danny’s hand a little longer than was strictly necessary. “How deep did you have to dig?  I mean, how much of your soul did you just lose by actually appreciating me?” _How hard was it to actually let me take care of you?_

Danny’s answer was vague and avoiding and Steve rolled his eyes, deciding to let it go for now. “Maybe you’re not as alone around here as you think, Danno.”

Life went on and with every case they worked they got more attuned to each other, spending more and more time together outside of work too.

They hadn’t shifted together yet, but it wasn’t long in coming. In fact, Steve was thinking about asking the governor for a weekend off for the whole team, a weekend of camping and ‘team-building’. There was a large, shifter owned plot of land in the Kaipapau forest reserve, carefully guarded from regular humans, where they could run, play, and howl to the moon to their heart’s content.

He knew Chin and Kono would jump at the chance as soon as he suggested it, but he wasn’t sure about Danny. The other man wasn’t like any other shifter he’d ever met. Steve could always tell when Chin or Kono had recently changed. Their scent was sharper, their eyes a little wilder. But despite the large amount of time he spent in Danny’s company, he got no such vibe from him. Not once. That could mean two things, either Danny _had_ shifted and Steve simply hadn’t noticed, which seemed impossible seeing as how fixated he’d become on Danny’s smell. Or Danny hadn’t changed at all since Steve met him, which seemed ridiculous. Unless Danny had some kind of condition that prevented him from shifting? He’d never heard about something like that before, but he supposed anything was possible.

It certainly didn’t decrease his already raging curiosity about his partner though and when he’d gotten all he could get from Danny’s personnel file, he decided to covertly check out the woman who still had a huge, though unwelcome, influence on Danny’s life…Rachel.

It was easy as pie to be at Gracie’s school one day when Rachel herself came to pick her up. Easy enough not to be seen by either of them but to get close enough to hear and smell them.

What he smelled hit him like a punch in the gut. Or rather…what he _didn’t_ smell. Rachel was purely human.

No freaking wonder their marriage ended badly.

And how the hell had a non-shifter managed to get almost full custody of a shifter kid? There were all kinds of measures in place to prevent that kind of thing from happening, shifters, or people in the know, high up in the government and in the judicial system, who arranged, and pressured and sometimes _bought_ cooperation to make sure that shifter rights were respected, even if they could never go public about it.

He was going to confront Danny about all of it.  But first he needed more information.

 -----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Steve opened a bottle of beer for Chin and handed it to him. The both of them were still a little winded from the wild chase they’d just had, running up and down the beach like a couple of hyped-up puppies. Normally neither of them would have changed in such a relatively public space, but it was 2am, and there was no moon out. Nobody noticed and even if someone had come out with a flash light, all they would have been able to make out was two dogs chasing each other. Nothing out of the ordinary. 

They both took a swallow and Steve decided to get to the point. “I need you to look into Danny’s past.”

Chin didn’t seem very surprised. “His time at the New Jersey PD?”

Steve shook his head. “Before that, and Chin?” He gave the other man a meaningful look. “I need you to use _all_ our resources.” Chin would know what he meant by that.

Chin nodded. He drank the rest of his beer quickly and stood up. “I’ll let you know when I’ve got something relevant.”

\--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Four days later Chin stepped into his office looking faintly bewildered and frustrated. “We need to talk,” he said, without any further introduction.

Steve didn’t need to ask what it was about. “Not here. My place, tonight?”

Chin nodded and hesitated for a moment before turning around.  He obviously wanted to talk about what he’d found out.

Steve watched as Chin walked back to their tech table, watched as the older man’s eyes came to rest on Danny, who was chatting to Kono. He could be wrong, but he thought he saw pity in Chin’s eyes. 


	3. Chapter 3

The day progressed far too slowly for Steve’s liking, which made him impatient, and Danny kept throwing him those searching glances, like he knew something was up. When he could finally, reasonably, call it a day, and he was packing up his things, Danny stepped into his office hesitantly.

“Hey,” his partner said, “you feel like company tonight?  I could bring along a couple of beers…”

Steve cursed Danny’s timing. The last thing he wanted to do was to give him the impression that Steve _didn’t_ want his company, but with Chin coming over to talk about Danny…tonight was out.

“Sorry buddy,” he said, “I got company tonight.” He tried to put a lecherous tone in his voice, hoping to give the impression he had a girlfriend coming over. “How about tomorrow night? There’s a game on, I could grill a couple of steaks…”

“Yeah, sure, sounds good.” Danny answered, although he didn’t sound very happy about it. “Have fun tonight.”

Steve frowned when Danny turned and walked out. He got the impression that Danny wanted to talk and he hated postponing that, but he needed to know what kind of information Chin had for him.

 ----------------------------------------------------------------------------

Steve paced his room restlessly, waiting for the familiar sound of Chin’s motorcycle. He hadn’t liked the look in Chin’s eyes when he’d looked at Danny.  The last thing Steve wanted to hear was that there was something wrong with his partner.

When he finally heard the deep rumble of Chin’s Harley Davidson cross bones chopper, he opened the door before the other man could knock.

Settled at the kitchen table, Steve prodded Chin impatiently. “So?”

“You might want to bring out a couple of beers for this one, brah.”

Steve grabbed a six-pack from the fridge and dropped it in front of Chin. “Talk.”

“The board…they screwed up with Danny, boss, badly. And when they found out they screwed up again.”

Steve frowned. The board was what they called the organization that registered all shifters and that handled pack disputes.

Chin continued. “It took a lot of digging to even find anything. Danny’s parents…they’re his adoptive parents, and they aren’t shifters. The board never intervened.”

“Jesus. How the hell did that happen?” Nowadays unregistered shifters were extremely rare, and the board went to extreme measures to prevent regular humans finding out about their existence. That included interfering in adoption cases. In the rare cases where orphaned shifter babies weren’t taken in by their parents’ pack, the board made sure they were quickly adopted by other packs willing to take in young. To have a shifter adoption handled by the regular human family court was unheard of.

“He slipped through the cracks, brah.” Chin shook his head. “Danny is not full-blood. His dad was 100 percent shifter, but his mother was a half-blood. His grandmother on his mother’s side was one of us, who married a regular human. The marriage failed and she got custody of the kid of course, but apparently they split amicably and Danny’s mother always kept in touch with her father, even when he remarried with a human woman, moved to New Jersey and they had another child, Danny’s mother’s half sister.” Chin raised an eyebrow at Steve. “You still following, boss?”

Steve nodded, getting a faint idea of where this was going.

Chin rubbed a hand through his hair. “So…Danny’s mother mated to another shifter, a _lone_ shifter, which is where things went wrong, I guess. He died in a car accident soon after she fell pregnant and without a pack to support her she went to stay with the only family she had left by then, her half-sister in New Jersey. I guess she didn’t inform the board of her pregnancy before the birth and during…”

Steve winced. “She died in childbirth?”

Chin nodded. “And that’s where the board screwed up the _first time_. They were informed of her death, but for some reason the birth of her son was never registered and his adoption by her half-sister was never contested.”

“ _Shit,_ ” Steve breathed, “So what happened when he reached maturity?” He could only imagine how traumatic a first change would be for a high school kid who’d never been informed of his ancestry.

“There was a teacher at his school. One of _us._ David Collins, a gym teacher. He’s the reason Danny was finally registered. I found his name in Danny’s file so I got in touch with him. Back then this guy noticed Danny getting more and more antsy. Grades dropping, getting moody, aggressive, everything you’d expect from a young shifter reaching maturity. When he noticed it wasn’t getting any better and Danny wasn’t handling it well, he contacted Danny’s parents. Didn’t take him long to figure out they had no clue what he was on about. That’s when he contacted the board and where they screwed up the _second time_.” 

Steve had never heard that exact tone of viciousness in Chin’s voice. “They didn’t step in?”

Chin shook his head. “There must have been a miscommunication of some kind.  Danny’s file had a note that said he belonged to this Collins guy’s pack. Collins had no idea. He helped Danny through his first shift, but he transferred to another school shortly after. He thought the board would send a ward to educate Danny. He feels really guilty that he didn’t keep in touch.”

“He should,” Steve growled.

Chin shrugged. “The board is usually on top of these things.”

“Yeah, well, he should have checked anyway.”

They sat in silence for a moment.

“Boss?”

“Yeah?”

“With his limited contact with shifters, do you think he even knows about _us_?”

Steve rubbed a hand over his face. “Well, he should be able to smell it at least, but his senses weren’t fully developed when he met Collins, and if he’s had little contact with shifters since… I mean, you’re not gonna find many of us in urban settings like where Danny grew up. It’s possible he hasn’t made the connection between the smell and us being what we are.”

“It’s no wonder he’s been acting so…” Chin’s voice trailed off as he glanced at Steve.

“Confused?” Steve offered with a wry smile. “Confrontational? _Loud_?”

“All of the above.”

Steve snorted. “Maybe he’s struggling because he’s trying to apply the rules of civilized society on shifter relationships, you know,  _‘the glue that separates us from jackals and hyena’s_ ’”.

Chin raised his eyebrows. “Jackals and Hyena’s?”

Steve grinned. “ _Animal planet_. Never mind,” he said at Chin’s confused look. “Maybe he’s struggling; maybe it’s just pure _Danny_. I guess I’ll find out tomorrow.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Sorry this was such a shorty. The next chapter will be longer, I promise.


	4. Chapter 4

Steve was already impatient for his conversation with Danny before the workday had even begun. He thought about it during his morning swim and it kept playing through his mind as he prepared for work. How uneducated was Danny, really? How much had Collins told him about their society, about pack dynamics?

When he arrived at the office, it annoyed him that Danny wasn’t there yet. He didn’t even try to convince himself that his irritation was caused by his partner being late for work. He knew where the feeling came from. Chin’s story about Danny’s youth had placed his partner firmly, though temporarily, into the ‘needs to be taken care of’ category in Steve's mind. His irritation was pure plain worry, nagging at his gut. It would fade, he knew. As soon as the protective instincts Chin’s words had stirred up calmed a little he’d go back to accepting that Danny was a good detective, entirely capable of taking care of himself and others.

“Boss?” Kono lingered in the doorway to his office.

“Hey. What’s up? We got a case?”

“Danny called in sick.”

Steve had his phone out before he even consciously made the decision to call Danny. No missed calls. He frowned; they were going to have to talk about that.

Danny picked up on the second ring. “Hey babe” he croaked.

“Hey buddy. Where are you?”

“In bed. I’m not feeling so well. I called Kono, cause she’s usually in early.”

Chin walked into Steve’s office. “Boss, we’ve got a call from the governor. Teenage daughter of a high-rolling executive has gone missing. They think it might be abduction.”

_Shit._ “Listen, Danno, you gonna be okay?”

“Yeah, ‘s probably just the flu. Gracie has it; might have picked it up from her.”

“You need anything?”

“Just sleep.”

“Alright. I have to go. You need anything, you call.”

“I’ll be fine. Go, go catch the bad guys.”

“I’ll talk to you later.” Steve switched off the phone, and focused on Chin, ignoring the urge to go check on Danny right away.

Six hours later Irene Gardeni was safely in Steve’s office, yelling at her dad about never being allowed to do anything, while her sixteen year old boyfriend, who she’d run off with, was being chewed out by his own parents in the hallway.

The fourth time Steve checked his watch Kono put her hand on his arm. “Go, boss, we’ve got this.”

“Yeah, brah” Chin nodded. "If anything else comes up, we’ll call.”

Steve nodded his thanks. “I’ll give you guys an update later.” He grabbed the keys to the truck and finally gave in to the need to check up on his partner.

The drive to Danny’s apartment was short and when he got there he didn’t bother to knock, instead he simply picked the crappy lock. If Danny was sleeping he didn’t want to wake him up.

The scent hit him like a brick wall as soon as he opened the door. Danny’s scent, but so much stronger. His partner had shifted. Steve would have been pleased, if the scent hadn’t been mixed with the scent of fear and pain.

He didn’t see Danny in the apartment so he walked through to the bathroom. The door was closed and when he tried the handle he found it locked. “Danny?”

He didn’t get an answer, but his partner was in there. He could hear him muttering faintly, the sound too weak to make out the exact words. His first instinct was to kick the door open, but not knowing exactly where Danny was, it was too big of a risk. If he was lying on the floor it might hit him in the head. Grabbing hold of the handle he shouldered the door open with a controlled burst of strength, ignoring the pain it caused.

Danny was lying on the floor, naked and panting like he’d run a race.

“Danno?” Steve crouched down beside him, checking for injuries.

Danny cringed when Steve touched him and started muttering again. “Hate it, I hate it, I hate it.”

“Fuck,” Steve breathed.

There were no injuries he could see, no apparent trauma, so he wrapped his arm around Danny’s waist and gently pulled him up. He half carried Danny to the pull-out bed, pulled the sheet up to cover him and then dropped down beside him wrapping his arms around him. “Shh, babe, it’s going to be okay. Everything’s going to be just fine now. I’m here. I’m here.”

Danny clutched his arm, digging his fingers in with bruising strength. “You _know_ right?” he said, “tell me you know? Please, tell me you know?”

Steve pulled him closer. “I know, Danny. It’s going to be fine now. We’ll take care of you.”

“You know?”

“Yeah, Danny. I know.”

“Are you?”

“Yeah. Me, and Chin, and Kono. We all are.”

Danny shuddered. “Thank you,” he mumbled, “thank you god. There’s the smell--he told me I’d smell it. Like me, and Gracie, but I wasn’t sure, and how do you _ask_? And nobody ever said anything but I was going to ask tonight but then it got so bad, and I couldn’t stop it anymore, but it hurts so bad. Is it supposed to hurt like this?”

Steve shook his head. He felt helpless and angry. Angry at the board, at Collins, at Danny’s birth mother, at fate in general. “No, Danny,” he said, “it’s not supposed to hurt you, but we’ll figure it out okay? We’re gonna help you. Everything’s going to get better now, I promise.”

They laid there for a long time, Steve firmly wrapped around Danny until his partner eventually fell asleep. Steve kept watch as Danny slept, not moving from the bed. After what must have been several hours, he felt his partner waking up, heard his breathing pattern change.

Danny kept quiet for a long time until he finally muttered, “This is weird.”

At first Steve wasn’t sure what Danny was talking about until his partner wrestled his arm from beneath the sheet and made a vague waving gesture, indicating the both of them.

He pulled Danny a little closer. “No, it’s not.”

Danny swallowed audibly. “It’s supposed to be though.”

Steve shrugged. “We touch a lot.”

“You mean, we as in us? Or we as in…our…kind?”

“I meant our kind, but now that you mention it, we’ve always touched a lot too.” He grinned. “We as in us.”

They were both silent for another moment.

“Are you feeling better?” Steve finally asked.

“Yeah.”

“Alright, come on then,” he said, pulling away from Danny. He got off the bed, grabbed Danny’s pants and threw them at him.

“Where are we going?”

“My place. You need to eat, and we need to talk, and we’re not doing it here.”

Apparently Danny didn’t feel like protesting, because he rolled out of bed and got dressed without comment. A rare occurrence.

“So,” his partner said when they were on the road, “the whole of 5-0…we’re a bunch of…werewolves?”

Steve snorted. “Generally, we prefer the term shifters.”

“But we shift into wolves.”

“Wolf-like creatures, yeah.”

“So…were-wolves.”

Steve rolled his eyes. “Okay, were-wolves. The myth’s based on our kind, anyway.”

“Silver bullets?”

“Will do the job just as well as regular ones.”

“Full moon?”

“We’re always there, just easier to spot when there’s a full moon.”

“Garlic?”

He shook his head. “That’s vampires. Didn’t you ask Collins any of this stuff?”

Danny was silent for a moment, just long enough for Steve to realize his fuck-up. “How do you know about Collins?”

_Shit._ “I uh- I thought your behaviour was a little…off. Like you didn’t know your place in the pack. And when I found out that Rachel’s not a shifter… I asked Chin to look into your past.” Steve expected a rant. Something along the lines of ‘who are you to decide my behaviour is off, you Neanderthal freak’ or maybe something about privacy and boundaries. What he didn’t expect was Danny’s tense question. “What did he find?”

Steve reached out and squeezed his partner’s shoulder. “How about we do this at the house? We’re almost there.”

It seemed like Danny was about to protest, but then he shrugged. “I’ve waited this long, couple more minutes won’t kill me.”

The ten minutes it took to get to Steve’s house were spent in an awkward silence and Steve was almost sorry for cutting their conversation short, but he didn’t even know if Danny knew he’d been adopted. He’d never mentioned it after all. And if he didn’t know…Steve did _not_ want to break it to him in the car.

When they arrived Steve walked straight to the kitchen. He opened the fridge and grabbed the grilled chicken breast, left over from dinner the night before, and a food container with potato salad. He dumped the chicken and a good helping of potato salad onto a plate and pushed it into Danny’s hands. “Eat.”

Danny raised an eyebrow at him. “Excuse me?”

“Eat. I’m not giving you beer until you’ve eaten.”

“Alright,” Danny said, then under his breath “freaking Neanderthal”. He waved the plate about. “Are you going to give me any cutlery, or am I supposed to eat like a freaking dog?”

Steve snorted. “You know where the knives and forks are.”

“I’ve got my hands full.” Danny said. He turned around and walked out to the living room. Apparently he was going to eat on the couch, which he knew Steve hated.

Steve grinned, a little relieved that Danny was acting the same as always. He grabbed a fork and knife and dropped down on the couch next to his partner. Danny took them without comment and dug in enthusiastically.

“Thish is good,” Danny muttered, with his mouth half full. Then he frowned. “Aren’t you going to eat?”

He shook his head. “I’ll order pizza.”

Danny frowned down at his plate of chicken and potato salad and then directed an accusing stare at him.

Steve could practically hear the rant. _‘Why are you feeding me cold chicken and salad when you get to eat pizza? That is_ not _what a good host does, Steven’_. He patted Danny’s shoulder. “Trust me; you’ll be hungry again later.”

He watched the cogs in his partner’s head turn and saw the moment it clicked that _yes_ , Danny would be getting pizza too. There was a pleased look and the corners of his mouth curled up and then he went back to shovelling food into his mouth at an alarming speed.

It took his partner mere minutes to finish off the entire plate. He dropped it on the table and turned to look Steve in the eyes. “Alright. Talk.”


	5. Chapter 5

_Alright then…_ “Did you know you’re adopted?” Steve nearly winced. There had to be a better way to ask than just blurting it out like that, but subtlety and tact had never been his strong points.

Danny rolled his eyes at him. “I kind of figured it out after Collins told me what I was, and that it had to come from one of my parents. Who, according to him, were clueless. Of course I asked him if it couldn’t have come from a rabid dog biting me or something, but sadly _no_ … So yes, Steven, I know I was adopted.”

“Right.” Of course Danny had figured that out. His partner could be called many things, but stupid wasn’t one of them.

“Problem is,” Danny confessed, “that’s about all I know. I asked mom about being adopted, made up some excuse about not looking much like my brothers and sisters, which is actually true, and she told me about her half sister. Said they hadn’t told me because they didn’t ever want me to feel like I wasn’t their child just as much as any of the others. They didn’t know who my father was, not even a name and I couldn’t find out anything special about my birthmother. No other family left alive on that side, so no one to ask.”

Steve couldn’t imagine how frustrated Danny must have been, finding out something that huge and not being able to find any information on his real parents or his heritage. For regular humans it was pretty much impossible to get information on shifters if you weren’t one of few initiated.

“I thought about telling them everything,” Danny continued, “showing them, but Collins warned me not to. Said there’d be consequences. And I didn’t want them to look at me like I was some kind of freak, so I kept my mouth shut and tried to be as normal as possible.”

 _Christ_. Steve gave in to the need to touch Danny, grabbing his shoulder and squeezing.

For a moment Danny leaned into the touch but then he sat up straighter and looked at Steve. “Stop stalling. What did you find?”

Steve gave one final squeeze and rehashed what Chin had told him. “Your mother was a halfblood. Her mother was shifter and her father, your granddad, was a regular human.  Marriage failed, they separated, but your mother kept in contact with your granddad.  He moved away, married another woman and had another daughter, your mom. Your birthmother fell in love with a lone shifter, a shifter without a pack, and she became pregnant. Early on in the pregnancy your father died in a car accident and your mother went to stay with the only family she had left by then, her half-sister, your mom. Your mother died in childbirth and your mom adopted you.”

He waited for a reaction but Danny just stared ahead, obviously processing this new information about his heritage. He looked a little lost.

It wasn’t a look Steve enjoyed seeing on his partner. “I can draw you a diagram,” he offered with a grin. He was relieved when Danny punched his arm and his eyes regained their focus.

“So,” Danny said, “my…father…does he have a name?”

Steve nodded. “Chin probably knows it already.  And if he doesn’t we can probably find out if we do a little more digging. All shifters are registered, and the board keeps information on packs too. Maybe we can find out what pack your father used to belong to.”

“The board?”

He kept forgetting how little Danny really knew. “That’s what we call the organisation that keeps records on shifters and packs.”

“Right.”

“They’re also the ones who should have prevented you being adopted by regular humans.”

Danny snorted. “Prevented?  And what exactly would they have done?  Tell the court ‘excuse me, but this child will be a werewolf in the future, we would like him to be raised by other werewolves?’ I think not.”

Steve looked at his partner seriously. “Behind the scenes? Yes, that’s exactly what would have happened. We have influence Danny, in places higher than you can imagine. Changing the outcome of an adoption hearing…that’s peanuts.”

“Jesus.” Danny ran a hand through his hair.

They sat in silence for a moment.

“You want a beer?” Steve asked.

Danny nodded so he went to get them a couple of longboards.

After a healthy swig his partner poked him in the side. “Tell me about packs.”

“Pack is ohana,” Steve said, “family, close friends, partners. We form very tight bonds. There is usually one leader, the alpha, he protects the pack and he has a say in everything that affects it.”

Danny looked down, plucking on a loose thread on his shirt. “So me and Grace, we’re a pack?”

“Actually,” Steve said after a short hesitation, “the both of you are part of _my_ pack. Unless you don’t want to be of course.”

He watched his partner closely, nervous about his reaction. When Danny looked up at him he relaxed. He wasn’t sure what that look on his partner’s face was, relief…happiness? It certainly wasn’t a negative emotion.

“Your pack, huh?” Danny said with grin. “And why do _you_ get to be alpha?”

Steve raised an eyebrow. “Are you challenging me, Danno?”

“Maybe.”

When he moved Danny tried to dart away, but Steve was faster and with one firm jerk he had his partner back on the couch, flat on his back with his arms pinned above his head and Steve crouching over him.

Danny was laughing so hard it took him a moment to gather enough air to speak. “Let go of me, you Neanderthal animal.”

Steve mock growled at him. “Not until you admit you’re mine. My pack.”

Danny struggled a little, but Steve could tell he was just playing, because Steve’s legs were on either side of Danny’s and his partner was in a prime position to do some damage to a very sensitive area if he wanted to.

Finally Danny stopped his struggles and relaxed under Steve. “Alright,” he said, panting a little, “I’m part of your pack.”

“Gracie too.”

Danny nodded, looking like he was trying hard not to look too pleased. “Grace too.”

“Okay.”

“Okay.”

“You gonna let me up now?”

“Maybe.”

“Like I keep saying… _Neanderthal_.”

“Call me alpha.” Steve said with a grin.

Danny drew his knee up and bumped it against Steve’s ass. Just a reminder of the vulnerable position Steve was in. “I don’t think so, Steven.”

He snorted and sat back, kind of glad that Danny was still _Danny_.

“Steve?”

“Yeah?”

“How many times have you changed? Shifted?”

How many times had he shifted? “I don’t know,” he said, “that’s like asking someone how often they’ve gone to the bathroom in their life. Who keeps track? I guess once a month at least. There’s not always opportunity, we have to be careful, but there have been times I shifted every week, every day even.”

Danny swallowed and looked away.

Steve dropped his hand on his partner’s thigh, rubbing gently. “Danno…how often have you shifted?” He was a little bit afraid of the answer.

“Five times.”

Steve was stunned. “In total?”

His partner nodded.

“Shit,” he breathed. “Didn’t you get the urge? The restlessness? The itching?”

Danny nodded. “Yeah, but if I just distracted myself long enough, most of the time it would go away eventually. And it _hurts_ Steve, it hurts like fucking hell. Worse than being shot.”

Steve winced in sympathy. “How long did you stay shifted the times you did?”

“Couple of minutes.”

 _Not long enough to adjust_. “You know, that might be the reason it hurts so much,” he offered, “you’ve never given your body enough time to adjust.”

Danny shrugged. “When I was young there were always people around, my parents, my brother, my sisters. The Williams family is _not_ big on privacy. We never had locks on our doors, and I couldn’t take the chance of someone walking in on me. When I got older it got easier to ignore the urge to shift entirely. I’ve gone _years_ without changing. Wasn’t even sure I still could, until I met you. Being around you guys…smelling you… made it so much harder to ignore. It kept getting worse and today I just _had_ to change.”

Steve made a decision and clapped his hand on Danny’s shoulder. “Do you have Grace next weekend?”

“No, Rachel and Stan are taking her to Maui to go whale watching, why?”

“Alright. There’s place here on the island where we can go to shift freely, without worrying about being seen. I’m going to arrange it with the governor so the whole team has the weekend off and we’ll go there. Maybe if you shift for longer time periods the pain will get less. If not there are special doctors we can consult.” He paused for a moment, waiting to see if his partner was going to fight him on this.

Danny drew a deep breath and let it out slowly. “Okay.”

“Okay?”

“Yeah. Steve?”

“What?”

“Thanks.”

Steve grinned and bumped his shoulder to Danny’s. “Hey, you’re pack.”

“Steve?”

“Yeah, Danno?”

“You gonna order that pizza?”


	6. Chapter 6

The governor easily bought his story about team-building and stress relief and Steve was assured HPD would handle all incoming cases next weekend.  Kono and Chin reacted as enthusiastically as he’d expected them to, cancelling earlier made plans without hesitation.

“I’m so sorry aunt Lekika,” Kono said into her cell phone with a regretful voice, while directing a huge grin at Steve. “I know…I was looking forward to it too.  But he said it’s mandatory.” She listened to the voice on the other side of the line for a moment. “Yeah, me too. You’ll have to take it up with my boss though…Alright; next weekend…I love you too…bye!”

Steve frowned at her.  “You’re going to give me a bad name.”

She patted his arm lightly. “Ship has sailed boss, no need to ruin my own reputation too. Now what do I need to bring? Are we going for one of the cabins?”

“Do you guys mind camping?” Steve said.  “I was thinking we could go to the more remote areas.  Give Danny a chance to get used to us, without running into any other…people.”

Chin nodded thoughtfully. “That might be best, considering _camping_ is so new to him.”

 -----------------------------------------------------------

The week passed slowly, with few cases and most of their time was spent on paperwork and cold cases. It was a relatively stress free week really, but Danny got increasingly quiet and crabby…an unusual and unwanted state of affairs.

When Steve called him on it his partner shrugged irritably. “Remember what I said about it hurting like hell? I wasn’t kidding Steven, or exaggerating. Knowing what’s going to happen next weekend is like knowing you have a dentist appointment where the dentist is going to give you a root canal and pull a couple of teeth without the benefit of an anaesthetic. So excuse me for not looking forward to it.”

Steve very much doubted Danny’s mood was entirely due to the prospect of a painful change, but his partner had a lot to deal with right then so he didn’t push. Despite the blonde’s prickly demeanour Steve pulled him in for a brief, awkward, one armed hug, wanting to offer comfort even though he couldn’t solve the problem for his partner like he wanted to.

He wasn’t sure how to describe the rush he felt when Danny leaned into it without hesitation.  

Over the last couple of days he’d found himself looking at Danny in a different light. Numerous times his gaze had dropped down to his partner’s ass. It looked firm, round…touchable…and he imagined wrapping his hands around it and lifting Danny up for a kiss.

It certainly wasn’t the first time he found himself attracted to a man, but it had been a long time since he’d even contemplated doing something about it. The last time he _had_ was before he became a SEAL. He’d never met anyone worth risking his career for.

He had no idea how Danny would react if he made a pass. His partner had never given any serious indication of being interested in men. Thankfully he hadn’t given any indication of being homophobic either. 

Even if Danny was interested, Steve still had to hold back. Because if he started something with Danny it wouldn’t be casual…Couldn’t be _._ He cared for the man too much already and although he’d never personally experienced it, he’d heard enough to know that initiating a mating bond and then having it rejected was not anyone’s idea of a good time. Of course by now it was probably already too late. They spent so much time together that it probably wouldn’t make a difference anymore.  If they were compatible a mating bond would probably start to form eventually. Getting physical would just speed up the process.  Danny had enough to deal with though, with his introduction into shifter society, the last thing he needed was to have to deal with the demands of a mating bond. So Steve kept his distance.

Tried to at least.

Danny wasn’t having it. He came over every damn night, claiming to want to talk about shifters and shifter society, which Steve totally understood, except after one or two questions the topic somehow always shifted to something else and they ended up watching a game or a movie, with Danny slowly but surely inching closer to him.

It was driving Steve mad and he wasn’t even sure if Danny realized he was doing it.

All in all Steve was glad when Friday afternoon finally rolled. “Go home and pack your camping gear, guys,” he said to the team with a gleeful grin, “we’re leaving from my place at the ass-crack of dawn tomorrow.”

“Steven.”

“Danny...”

 “You’ve seen my apartment right?”

“Of course.”

“So you know the size of it.”

Steve rolled his eyes.

“You’ve seen pretty much all the stuff I have in my apartment,” Danny continued, “and you know there’s not a lot of room to hide anything?”

He raised an eyebrow. “What’s your point Danno?”

“My point, _Steven_ , is _this_ …what have you ever seen in my apartment that would indicate that I own camping gear?”

“Oh.” _Right._ He hadn’t thought of that. But Danny wasn’t getting out of camping that easily. “Not a problem. I’ve got enough stuff for both of us.”

“Why does that not surprise me? Crazy ninja” Danny mumbled under his breath. 

Steve heard him anyway.

He rolled his eyes. “Just pack clothes Danny, warm stuff; it can get chilly at night. I’ll take care of the rest.”

Chin patted Danny’s arm with a grin. “There’s no getting out of it, brah.”

“Come on, cousin,” Kono said, “we’ve got some packing to do.” She grabbed Chin’s arm and pulled him along.

Steve turned to go himself.

“Steve?” Danny mumbled.

“Yeah?”

Danny visibly hesitated a moment, then shook his head. “Nothing. Good night.”

Steve frowned. “What’s up, Danny?”

His partner turned away. “It’s nothing. Forgot what I was going to say. See you tomorrow.”

He was tempted to let Danny get away with the lie. It was a good idea to have at least a _little_ distance, if only for one evening. But his partner’s shoulders were slumped and Steve’s protective instincts hadn’t calmed down one bit yet… _Fuck it._ “Hey Danny?  You want to come over after you pack? We’re leaving so early, you might as well crash on my couch tonight.”

His partner stared at the ground, avoiding Steve’s eyes. “I shouldn’t”

He shouldn’t…it was an interesting choice of words. Not ‘I’d rather go home’, not ‘I can’t because I have stuff to do’, just…I _shouldn’t_.

“Come on,” Steve pushed, “You can help me pack the truck.”

Danny stared at him with an expression that was sort of pained but then he shook his head determinedly. “I’ll help you pack in the morning when I come over. Good night.”

He watched as his partner turned away and made his way out of the office. It was a good thing that Danny was staying at his own apartment tonight. A good thing. They would be spending the entire weekend together after all.

Good thing or not. It still bothered him to see the man go.

\-------------------------------------------

True to his word Danny showed up on Steve’s doorstep at five in the morning, ready to help Steve pack up the truck.

It was already packed of course. The navy had taught him never to leave that kind of stuff to the last minute, it was a recipe for disaster, so he’d started gathering gear and packing up the truck when he arrived home the evening before.

Danny was not pleased. “Damn it Steve, I could have slept for another hour!”

He grinned at his partner. “Nah, Kono and Chin will probably be here within fifteen minutes. They’re raring to go.”

He was right, too.  Not ten minutes later, when Danny was grumpily nursing a hot cup of coffee in the kitchen, they heard Kono’s car.

Kono was wide awake and energetic to the point of being bouncy and she and Steve made short work of loading up the truck with her and Chin’s gear. 

Chin watched them work for a moment, raised an eyebrow at their vigor and walked into the house.

Once they were done and came in themselves they found Chin sitting at the kitchen table, drinking coffee next to Danny who was slumped over the table with his head pillowed on his arms, dead asleep.

Kono got a dopey look on her face, snuck behind him and gently patted his hair. “Aww, he’s drooling.  That’s so cute.”

Steve looked on with a grin. He loved how easy they all were together. Loved that Kono touched without hesitation. Loved that Danny trusted Chin enough to fall asleep right next to him. 

Kono touching Danny wasn’t just pleasing because of their growing bond as pack, it was also a little reassuring. He didn’t feel any jealousy or hostility towards Kono for touching his partner, which meant he and Danny weren’t forming a mating bond yet.

“Alright.” He said loudly, slapping his hands together and waking Danny up in the process. He grinned as his drowsy partner surreptitiously tried to wipe his face. Kono’d been right about the drooling. “We’re all set.  Let’s go!”

The four of them piled into the truck, Danny and Kono in the backseat while Chin rode shotgun, and they took off for the Kaipapau forest reserve. It would take them a couple of hours to get there.  The drive along the Kamehameha highway didn’t take particularly long but when they neared the reserve they’d have to take smaller and smaller roads and eventually just trails. It was slow going but completely worth it to get to where they were going, a large area carefully guarded by fellow shifters, where they could shift and roam to their hearts content. 


	7. Chapter 7

For the first leg of their journey Danny was asleep, leaning against the window cushioned by the jacket he’d propped up against it. Steve could only see a small part of his body in the rear view mirror and he was tempted to turn the mirror a little so he could watch Danny sleep. He didn’t give in to the temptation though, there were other people in the truck, his responsibility…he needed to keep his eyes on the road.

“Hey brah,” Chin said, “when are we going spearfishing again? Did you get that link I sent you about how to make the sling?”

“Oh man, yeah I did.” Steve answered, momentarily distracted from his partner’s still form. “I found some PVC-pipe in the garage so I can use that, but there was this youtube video from a guy who used a busted fishing rod. It looked pretty effective.”

Chin nodded. “I think I’ve seen that one. Looked pretty good.”

Steve grinned “I know the gear’s not expensive or anything and I can always buy the spears and the sling, but there’s just something about making them yourself, you know?”

Chin grinned back at him. “Yeah brah, I know what you mean.”

They talked about spear guns versus traditional spears, the best locations to go diving and when they could plan another fishing trip. It felt good to just chat about stuff that wasn't work related.

The next time he looked in the rear view mirror Danny was sitting upright and looking at Chin with a frown that was seconds away from being an outright glare. 

Steve frowned. What was that about? Did Danny and Chin have an argument before they left?  He couldn’t imagine it, for one thing, it hadn’t seemed like Danny had the energy for an argument, he’d been pretty much passed out at the kitchen table. Steve hadn’t seen any hint of animosity between them when Kono and he came in either. But he and Chin were talking about spear fishing…not exactly a subject to get all worked up about, so why the glaring?

Steve looked at Kono. Apparently she’d noticed it too because her eyes were drifting between Danny and Chin with obvious curiosity. She met his eyes in the mirror and Steve lifted an eyebrow at her inquisitively.

Their rookie shrugged subtly and pulled a face that somehow very clearly communicated ‘What are you asking _me_ for? I don’t know what’s going on.’

Steve made a ‘me neither’ face at her and focused back on the road. When his eyes drifted back to Danny his partner was still staring at Chin with a morose expression, until his eyes cut away and met Steve’s in the mirror. Danny started visibly and looked away quickly. Steve saw redness creeping up his face, his partner was obviously embarrassed at being caught giving Chin the stink eye.

Maybe Danny was upset about being left out? That seemed pretty unlikely. He’d never been even remotely interested in spear fishing before. They’d even asked him whether he wanted to join them last time and he’d made it perfectly clear that ‘purposely depriving his brain of oxygen to throw sharp pointy sticks at fish’ was not his cup of tea. There might have been some mention of sharks, jellyfish, and ‘stingray’s with a reputation for killing Steves’ too.

Maybe Chin wasn’t the problem, maybe Danny just got out of bed on the wrong side this morning and he was just irritated at the world in general?

He watched Kono bump her knee against Danny’s with one of her warm, playful grins and saw his partner smile back at her affectionately. Alright, there went the ‘angry at the world’ theory. It had to be something about Chin then.  

Steve shook his head and focussed on the road again. They’d arrived at the part of their trip where he really needed to pay attention since they were leaving the Kamehameha highway and going land inward.

After a long drive over increasingly rough roads they finally arrived at the first checkpoint.

A shifter wearing a park ranger uniform smiled at them good-naturedly and sauntered over to the truck.  “Aloha, can I see some identification please?”

The man leaned closer to Steve’s open window than any normal ranger would do and he knew the guy was taking in their smells. It was the first check to make sure no regular humans ever reached shifter territory. Any stray tourist would be gently sent away with excuses about possible forest fires, ecosystems too fragile to allow trucks other than those of the rangers, and who knew what other explanations.  

They handed over their ID’s and the ranger quickly checked their information against something in his Blackberry before handing them back.

“Alright,” the ranger said, “you guys just keep following this road, until you reach the second checkpoint. Have fun.”

“Mahalo,” Steve answered, “you have a good day.”

“Second checkpoint?” Danny muttered when they pulled away.  He sounded a little bewildered. 

“There’s a third checkpoint too, brah” Chin said. “Once we’ve passed that one we’re really in shifter territory, we can change freely there. This place is really well-guarded, there are constant patrols to keep regulars from entering it.”

“Regulars?”

“Normal humans.” Chin added.

“Right.” Danny said, rubbing his brow.

Kono bumped her shoulder to Danny’s. “It’s going to be great Danny. I promise.”

They soon came up on the second checkpoint and went through the same procedure as before, except this time there were three men, two in their human form and one who was shifted. They checked out the truck a little more closely this time around.

Steve could tell the exact moment Danny realised they weren’t being checked by two men and a dog, but by three men, one of whom was shifted. His partner’s eyes went wide and he stared fixedly at the wolf, watching it’s every move. Not a good idea.

“Hey Danny,” Steve said softly, “you might wanna stop that.”

“What?” Danny asked, not taking his eyes of the wolf.

“Staring like that. It’s not exactly polite, and it might be considered a challenge.”

Danny’s eyes snapped to his, startled. “What?”

“In shifter society staring someone down like that is considered an aggressive move. You don’t want to give the wrong impression.”

“Umm no, I really don’t.” his partner said, dropping his gaze down, totally avoiding the shifter who was now circling the truck.

Steve snorted. “Danny, you can look at him, just don’t be so obvious about it.” He couldn’t really blame his partner for his curiosity though, since the last shifter he’d seen in their changed form was Collins…and that was almost 20 years ago.  

They were allowed to continue, and at the third checkpoint they were simply waved through. A rough trail led them deeper and deeper into the reserve until they reached what Steve thought was a suitable area to set up their base camp.

“Here?” he suggested.

Kono and Chin nodded. “Here.”

They looked at Danny expectantly who shrugged and said “Sure” with a look that said he didn’t have a clue why this particular clearing was any better or worse than all the other ones they’d passed before.

Setting up their tents was quick work. Kono and Chin had decided on separate tents, but Steve had gone for one larger tent for him and Danny.

“We’re sharing?” Danny asked with an inscrutable expression.

“Yeah, you mind?”

After a long look at the tent Danny shook his head.

With the tents set up and the rest of the camp pretty much ready, they could finally get to the part they’d all been waiting for. Steve had been looking forward to this for an entire week, Chin and Kono too, he was sure, and he really didn’t want to put off their shifting any longer.  

One look at his partner’s pale face and trembling hands changed his mind though. “Alright guys, how about some breakfast?”

They dug out sandwiches from their packs and ate in companionable silence, and if Danny spent more time picking at his food than eating it nobody mentioned it.

Twenty minutes later they sat there staring at each other, and Steve figured waiting longer wasn’t going to make his partner any more comfortable. “Why don’t you guys go first,” Steve suggested to Kono and Chin. It would give Danny a chance to look his fill at fellow shifters without it being considered bad manners, and hopefully their scent would increase his own urge to shift.  

The cousins stood up eagerly and both of them started stripping on the spot, until they finally noticed the frantic meaningful glances he was throwing their way. He gestured vaguely toward the truck with his head and sighed in relief when they got the message and retreated behind the truck before they got completely naked.

Shifters were usually pretty casual about nudity, especially with their pack. Prudishness and routinely waking up naked in a dog pile of pack members just didn’t really go together…

But Danny hadn’t grown up in a pack and he was pretty adamant about wearing ‘appropriate attire’ on any occasion, and Steve had a suspicion Danny didn’t think nudity was appropriate anywhere else than in showers and bed. He’d learn of course, but maybe now was just a little bit too early to start with that.

Mere moments later Kono’s scent filled his nostrils and she strode out from behind the truck elegantly. Her glossy dark fur was beautiful and although her wolf form was as slight as her human form, she exuded strength. 

Her regal entrance was somewhat ruined when Chin’s larger and messier form charged from behind the truck and unceremoniously bowled her over. The chase was on.

Steve enjoyed the show their companions gave them as they ran and jumped and played, but even more so he enjoyed the almost childlike fascination on Danny’s face as he watched every move the cousins made.

Finally Kono and Chin slowly approached them, thoroughly out of breath with their tongues flopping out of their mouths. The both of them sat down right in front of Danny and stared at him.

Danny watched them with wide eyes, and his fingers twitched before he curled them into fists.

“You can touch them,” Steve said gently, “they won’t mind.”

Danny hesitated. “You sure?”

If Kono had been able to, Steve was sure she would have rolled her eyes. Instead she just stood up, took a few steps and boldly dropped herself into Danny’s lap.

“I’m sure.” Steve said with a grin.

His partner slowly started petting Kono’s sleek fur. “You’re beautiful,” he breathed reverently. Then he yelled, startled when Chin playfully slobbered the side of his face. “Chin! What the hell?”

 “Alright, Danno.” Steve cut the impromptu cuddling session short. “Your turn.”

Danny frowned at him. “Can’t I just sit this one out? I mean, I changed a week ago, Steven.  A _week_. Going from 5 times in 35 years to once a week is a bit much, don’t you think? Give a guy some time to adjust.”

Steve ignored the remark. “Do you want me to stay this way while you change, or do you want me to go first?”

Danny’s looked down at the ground and shrugged.

“Alright then. I’ll change after you.  You wanna go behind the truck? Or use the tent?”

“I’ll uh…”

Danny fell silent and Steve’s heart ached a little at the look on his partner’s face. They needed to get this over with though. “Alright. Tent it is.” He grabbed the blonde’s arm, dragged him to his feet and gave him a gentle shove towards their tent. “Go.”

“Alright, alright. _Animal._ See if I ever go camping with you again.”

Steve followed Danny to the tent and rolled his eyes when his partner closed the flap. He sat down in front of it and waited, focussing on the soft noises within the tent. Danny was taking his sweet time getting undressed.

Finally the sound of clothes being removed stopped and he heard Danny sitting or laying down.

It was silent for a bit, and he was about to call out to Danny, tell him to get a move on, when he heard his partner’s breathing get heavier…and heavier…until it was more like gasping than breathing.  There was a harsh sob followed by a pained groan that had Steve wincing in sympathy, and then his blood turned cold when that groan turned into the most gut-wrenching scream he’d ever heard.

He struggled with the damn flap and just when he was finally crawling into the tent the scream morphed into a howl that died down to a whine, and Steve was greeted by the sight of a light brown wolf that was still twitching in pain.

“Danny!” He crawled closer and ran his hand through his partner’s soft fur for the first time. “It’s going to be okay Danny,” he said, gently petting his partner’s head, “I’m here. You’re going to be fine.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I keep thinking the next chapter will be the one where big things happen and I can make a lot of progress in the story...but the story just seems to want to go this slow. I can't help it! Sorry...


	8. Chapter 8

“Just breathe through it Danno,” Steve said, never taking his hands of his partner, “it’ll get better, I promise, just wait it out.”

The whines slowly got softer and softer until they stopped altogether. Danny lifted his head up slightly and his pale blue eyes focussed on Steve with a pained look.

“It’s okay buddy. Just lay there a little longer.” Steve said, pushing his partner’s head back down. “Don’t change back; you’ve got to stay like this for a while okay?” He kept petting and talking, hoping his voice and touch would comfort Danny. When he looked to the side two dark heads were poking through the opening of the tent with concerned looks. He motioned for them to come in; after all, there was nothing more comforting than being curled up with your pack.

He didn’t need to ask twice. Kono and Chin immediately walked in and dropped down next to Danny. Kono started licking Danny’s muzzle and Chin rested his head on Danny’s flank.

As he watched the three of them together he suddenly felt strangely left out. Ridiculous, he reminded himself, they were all _his_ after all. Quickly he wrestled off his shoes, jerked of his shirt and then shoved his cargos and boxers down in one move. He suspected Chin and Kono were silently laughing at him, but at least they weren’t obvious about it.

Within moments he’d taken on his other form and he dropped himself right in the middle of them, half on top of Danny. It got him a lick from Kono and a playful bite to his ear from Chin.

He wasn’t sure how long they lay there, grooming Danny, but finally the smaller wolf started to move. Not the pained twitching he’d done right after shifting, but careful coordinated moves…like he was trying out his body. Steve moved away from his partner and Chin and Kono followed suit.

They watched closely as Danny carefully and awkwardly pushed himself up until he was sitting.

Glad that his partner seemed to be doing better he gave him a gentle head bump in encouragement. _Shouldn’t have done that_ , he thought, as he watched Danny lose his balance and fall back down again. He gave his partner a remorseful lick on the nose and wanted to laugh when Danny glared at him. That glare, more than anything, told him his partner was okay.

The second time Danny pushed himself up Steve figured it was time to get out of the tent. It was large, big enough for three people to sleep in easily, but with four wolves it was decidedly crowded.

He walked out, followed by Chin and Kono, and more slowly by Danny.

Danny in his shifted form was very different from human Danny, Steve thought. Human Danny walked with confidence and poise, comfortable in his own skin…something that wolf Danny was definitely not.

There was something about the careful yet shaky way Danny was placing his paws that reminded Steve of something… _what was it..._

It took Danny nearly losing his balance again to make it click in his head. Danny walked like a freaking puppy. One look at Kono's gleaming eyes told him she’d noticed too. If the situation had been different Danny would have never lived this down, they would have teased him mercilessly about it. But it wasn’t, and Steve knew none of them would ever mention anything about it to Danny. Well…maybe in a couple of years, when Danny was as comfortable in his wolf form as he was as a human.

Steve yipped to get his packs attention and then turned to go for a little stroll, trusting them to follow. They would start out slowly, he decided. Give Danny a chance to find his footing.

Not ten seconds later Danny shot past him, clumsy legs building up an impressive speed before he stumbled and rolled through the undergrowth. He righted himself, twigs and leaves stuck in his fur, and looked at Steve. It was harder to read expressions in this form but if Steve had to classify the look he was given…he’d call it ‘glee’.

And then Danny charged at him.

They played for hours, chasing and mock fighting and exploring the forest. Danny kept trying to ambush him, which never worked of course. His partner didn’t have the skill yet to approach silently, and he never took the wind into account so Steve smelled him before he was even getting close. It was fun though. They howled…just for the hell of it…and it figured that that was the one thing Danny did perfectly without needing any practise.

In the afternoon they returned to the campsite and took a nap, the four of them comfortably curled up together, heads resting on flanks and legs entwined. It had been too long since he’d had this, Steve decided. He suddenly wasn’t sure how he’d done without it for so long.

Finally he decided it was time to change back. Chin and Kono got the message when he nudged them and they changed quickly. He was amused when Danny stared at their nude forms until they retreated behind the truck to get their clothes. He’d get used to it.

Steve shifted too and he was just a little bit disappointed when Danny didn’t look at him at all but instead kept his eyes firmly glued to the ground. He shrugged and crawled into the tent to get his own clothes.

When he got back out Chin was already starting the camp fire and Kono was firing up the camping stove. He grabbed the meat, already cut and seasoned, the diced vegetables, and the pre-cooked potatoes from the cooler. Doing that sort of stuff in advance was always easier. They’d have a tasty and nutritious stew in just a couple of minutes.

He threw a couple spoonfuls of coconut oil into the pot which would help them regain some of the calories they’d lost and added the meat, stirring carefully. Danny wasn’t anywhere in sight, so he figured he must have gone into the tent to get dressed too. He really hoped the change would be less painful this time. Maybe all his partner needed to do was to shift regularly and the pain would disappear as his body got used to the change. Otherwise they’d have to visit a shifter doctor. He’d gone to one himself after a mission gone wrong where he’d been hurt in his shifted form. That guy had been navy though. They might need to contact the board to get the name of shifter specialist on Hawaii. There’d been someone when he was young, someone his mother had visited when she was pregnant with Mary, but he couldn’t remember the name and it wasn’t the sort of information you could find in the yellow pages, or on the internet for that matter.

Kono poked his arm and distracted him from his thoughts. She gestured subtly with her head and Steve looked in the direction she was indicating.

Danny, still in his wolf form, walked out of some nearby bushes and dropped down contentedly near the fire.

Steve gave him a look. “Danny, you want to go change now? Dinner’s going to be ready soon.”

Danny looked at him for a few seconds, then laid his head down on his paws and ignored him.

“Danny...”

His partner rolled over, turning his back on him.

“Danny, come on.”

When he got no response whatsoever he gave his spatula to Kono. “Keep an eye on this, will you?” He said, indicating the pot. She nodded and he got up and walked to his partner. “Danny, it’s time to shift back now.”

Danny raised his head and watched Steve approach with a calculating look. When he got close his partner got up and trotted away.

Steve followed.

Every time he got close Danny changed direction to stay just out of reach. Steve had the distinct impression Kono and Chin were laughing at him. “Danny, I’m getting a little sick of this,” he warned.

When his partner darted out of the way again, he threw up his hands in defeat. “Alright fine,” he said, turning back towards the campfire, “be that way.” From the corner of his eye he saw Danny look away from him, and that was the moment he’d been waiting for. He spun around and lunged, taking his partner down in flying tackle.

With the smaller wolf firmly pinned down beneath him he growled. “Danny, you are going to change back. Right now.”

Danny whined pitifully at him.

“ _Now_ , Danny.”

His partner responded to the command because moments later Steve felt the shifting of muscle and bone beneath him and Danny moaned loudly, gasping in pain.

Eventually the mindless moaning and groaning turned into recognizable words “Ow ow ow ow fucking ow”

“Breathe” Steve reminded him. He gently rubbed the blonde’s chest. It was kind of funny that Danny was almost as furry as a human as he was in his wolf form. “Breathe…”

“I’m not having a freaking baby you know.” Danny grumbled, but his breathing slowed down anyway.

Steve kept stroking, studying his partner’s face, watching the pained expression slowly disappear.

Suddenly Danny gave a short involuntary gasp and his eyes widened, and when Steve looked down he saw that yes, that little nub he’d just rubbed was indeed a nipple…

He looked up again and Danny was staring at him with ‘deer caught in headlights’ look. Then he blinked and abruptly bucked Steve off, dropping him on his ass. “I’m going to get dressed.”

Steve watched his partner walk away stiffly, giving the campfire a wide berth so he wouldn’t come close to Kono or Chin.

_That went well_ … He rejoined the cousins at the campfire, shrugging in response to their questioning looks. Danny would come around. He hoped.

A couple of minutes later a frowning Danny crawled out of the tent.

“Hey Danny, come eat.” Steve motioned to a spot beside him where he’d laid out a plate and cutlery for his friend.

“I’m not hungry.”

It was a lie. The change cost a truckload of energy and Steve had never encountered a shifter who wasn’t ravenous afterwards. He let it go though; maybe the pain from the change was still bothering Danny, so he let his partner roam around the campsite, kicking at sticks and avoiding his pack.

Twenty minutes later, when Danny had wandered back to the campfire, obviously getting chilled, he asked again. “You ready to eat something now?”

“I told you I wasn’t hungry!” Danny snapped.

Alright, that was it. His partner might be going through some stuff but he was acting like a jerk and Steve had enough. “Okay”, he said casually, “no use letting it go to waste then.” He grabbed the pot and divided the stew they’d been saving for Danny between his, Kono's and Chin’s plate.

Kono gave him a conflicted look but after he gave her a stern look she dug in, as did Chin.

Danny looked at them with a lost look on his face and then turned away. “I’m going to sleep,” he said curtly. He crawled into the tent and closed the flap.

Chin stared after him with a wince.

“Don’t worry,” Steve reassured them, “I’ll get him to talk about it. We’ll figure this out.”

After he finished the stew he grabbed some stuff from his pack and retreated to the tent as well.

Danny was facing away from him and even though he was breathing slowly and regularly Steve could tell he wasn’t asleep. His partner was much too stiff and occasionally a shudder ran through him. It was pretty chilly, and he was sure the hunger wasn’t exactly helping either.

“So,” he said, “you want to tell me what that was all about?” He started unzipping Danny’s sleeping bag.

“I don’t know what you’re talking about” Danny said, giving up on feigning sleep. “And what are you doing?! Stop that! It’s fucking cold enough as is.”

“I’m talking about the attitude Danny.”

“What attitude? I don’t have an attitude. You seem to be the one with the attitude, making strange accusation and messing with another man’s sleeping gear-”

Come on, Danno, you know perfectly well what I’m talking about.”

“I do not, Steven and- what are you doing?!”

Steve ignored the question and continued zipping his own sleeping bag to Danny’s. Then he chucked his clothes until he was only in boxers and a T-shirt and crawled right in.

“Steve, what the fuck?”

He tugged on Danny’s sweater. “Take this off; it’ll only make you colder. And you shouldn’t sleep with your jeans on either.”

“Why the hell not?”

“Because your clothes are damp, which makes them anti insulating.” He grabbed the sweater and pulled it up. “Off.”

Danny had little choice but to cooperate.

“Pants too.”

“Fuck you, Steve.”

“Off,” he insisted, “or I’ll take them off for you.”

The threat worked and a grumbling Danny wiggled out of his jeans and worked them out of the bag. “Neanderthal. There, you happy now?” He fell silent when Steve wrapped an arm around him and pulled him close, back to chest. “Steve, what are you doing?”

He shrugged. “You’re cold. I’m not.”

Danny stayed silent and Steve gently rubbed his hand over his partner's goose bumped arm.

“Don’t.” Danny said quietly.

“Why?”

“Just don’t, _please_.”

“Tell me what’s going on.”

Danny wrenched away from him and rolled as far as the double sleeping bag allowed him, which wasn’t very far. If Steve reached out he could easily pull Danny back but he decided to allow him a little space. “What’s wrong Danny?”

“Nothing.”

“ _Bullshit._ Tell me what’s wrong.”

“Me!” Danny blurted out. “ _I’m_ wrong okay?!” He took a shuddering breath. “I’m going crazy, _insane_ , and it’s all your fault!”

Danny’s next words were spoken softly and he studiously avoided Steve’s eyes. “I want you near, all the time. If you’re talking to someone else I want to pull you away. I want to tie you down so I know you won’t go anywhere. If you leave my sight I worry about everything that could possibly happen to you. It’s not normal, and it’s driving me crazy.”


	9. Chapter 9

_‘Holy shit’_ was the first thought that went through Steve’s head, and for a short while it was the only thought. 

He’d been expecting to start forming a mating bond with Danny…been looking for the signs inhimself. But he’d completely ignored the possibility of Danny starting it. His partner didn’t even know what mating entailed...and yet he was forming the bond…and being pretty damn quick about it too. 

They’d have to ask for a vacation. Or sick leave. Maybe Danny should ask for vacation and Steve could claim sickness shortly after.  The governor would never go along with a vacation request from the boss of five-0 _and_ his second in command at the same time, but if they made their absence seem like a coincidence there wasn’t much she could do about it. Of course she _could_ ask Danny to come back from his vacation when Steve ‘got sick’... 

They could try working through it…but if his partner was this possessive already it might be dangerous.

He focussed on Danny again. His partner was tense, breathing fast and shallow, and he still wasn’t looking at Steve. _Shit._ He wanted smack himself…Danny was obviously freaking out and he should be reassuring him instead of planning their mating retreat. He reached out and grabbed his partner’s shoulder. “Danno, it’s alright. You’re mate bonding.” 

Danny finally turned his head to look him in the eyes. “I’m _what_?” 

“You’re- _We’re_ forming a mating bond.”

“A mating bond…”

“Yeah.”

“ _Mating_?”

Steve nodded.

“As in mated for life?”

“Well…yeah.”

“Like penguins?”

“Uh…yeah…and wolves...”

 “And this…bond…is causing these feelings?”

“Yeah. It’ll probably get a little worse before it gets better.” Steve admitted.

His partner gave him a hopeful look. “It gets better?”

He nodded. “Yeah, the possessiveness will get a little less, so we won’t need to be together all the time and you won’t want to kill everyone who talks to me.”

Danny’s face fell and he was silent for a long time before opening his mouth again. “How do I stop it?”

Steve felt his heart stutter. “You don’t want it?”

Danny looked away and shook his head. “No Steven, I do not. Why the hell would I?” 

Steve breathed carefully and tried to keep his emotions off his face and out of his voice. He’d never seriously considered Danny rejecting him, but if his partner didn’t want the bond he wasn’t going to make him feel guilty about it, that wouldn’t be fair. He had to be honest though. “It’s not something you can stop Danny. You can smother it by creating distance, actual physical distance, as in not seeing me or talking to me… Even then it’s going to be rough. You’ve already started the bonding. Breaking it might work if we never see each other again, but we’re both in Hawaii, we have the same friends, we’re going to run in to each other.”  

Danny rubbed his hands over his face. “ _Fuck_.”

Yeah, that about summed it up. If his partner was going to try to stop their bonding, they were _both_ going to be miserable for the foreseeable future. “Danny,” he prodded gently, “why don’t you want it?”

“Grace”

He frowned. “I get along great with Grace!”

“No- I mean- I know, but that’s not-” Danny took a shuddering breath. “What if she takes Grace off the island? This bonding…if it’s going to make me feel- feel more-… If she takes Grace, I’ll have to follow. I can’t _not_. This bond thing will just make sure that I’m fucked either way.”

Steve felt a weight lift off his heart, because if _that_ was the only thing holding Danny back… “Danny, she can’t.”

Danny glared at him. “She brought her here, Steve. She can take her anywhere else she fucking wants to.”

“No Danny, you don’t understand. She _can’t_ take Grace. I’m not saying she won’t try, I’m saying she won’t _succeed_. Gracie is a shifter child Danny, and Rachel won’t be allowed to take her away from you again. Before, you didn’t know what resources we have, but you do now. There’s no way the board will let her take Grace again.  Not from you, not from our pack."

“She won’t be able to leave Hawaii?  Even if Stan has to move for his business?”

“Well, Rachel might leave Hawaii, but she won’t be allowed to take Grace with her.”

Danny gave him a doubtful look. “Stan can afford some really good lawyers babe.”

Steve nodded. “I’m sure he can, but the board will go pretty damn far too prevent Rachel and Stan from taking Grace, and they’ve got almost limitless resources.”

Danny still didn’t look convinced, so Steve continued. “They fucked up before Danny, and they’re going to want to make damn sure they don’t do it again. What do you think will happen when Gracie reaches shifting age if Rachel takes her away? The board got lucky with you. If Collins hadn’t been there who knows what would have happened? Think about it Danny. You could have shifted in the middle of class. Can you imagine the shit that would have stirred up? They’ll never take the chance of that happening with Gracie. You can stop worrying about that, and you can stop worrying about Rachel taking you to court for visitation again, because the next time she tries you’ll probably end up with full custody.”

“Full custody?”

He shrugged. “The board believes the ends justify the means in these cases. If necessary they’ll fabricate evidence to show Rachel is a bad mother.”

Danny frowned. “She’s not though.  She’s a good mother.”

“Doesn’t matter. For the safety of our kind Grace needs to be with you. You could take Rachel back to court yourself.  Change the arrangement you have now.”

Danny swallowed thickly, and stared blindly at the roof of the tent for a long time.  Then he shook his head. “Rachel and I are civil now. We’re getting better; things have finally calmed down a little. Grace won’t understand if I take Rachel back to court now. How is she going to feel when her mom is slandered? When her whole life is turned upside down again? I won’t do that to her.

Steve nodded, knowing the kind of father Danny was, he’d kind of expected that answer. “You don’t have to. But you also don’t have to worry anymore about Rachel taking Grace away from you. It won’t happen.”

“What about you?”

For a moment Steve was confused. “What do you mean?”

“What if you leave?”

He shook his head. “I’m not leaving Danny.”

“Yeah? What if you get recalled to active duty?”

“I won’t.”

“Sure you won’t.”

“No, I won’t.” Suddenly it hit him. He _wasn’t_ going to get recalled if their mating proceeded. Mated shifters weren’t allowed on missions. Generally they couldn’t handle the separation, so after matebonding they were either honorably discharged or a given a function that didn’t require extensive travel. There would be no more missions for him. No more sanctioned missions at least.

He reached out and pulled Danny back against him, breathing in his smell. It was enticing to say the least. Even more so than it had been before, which meant his own body was changing, responding to Danny’s. Accepting the bond, producing hormones and changes in his brain that would forever bind him to his partner.

No more missions…It was worth it.

Now if only he could get Danny to agree. “I won’t leave,” he promised.

“What if you die?”

“What if _you_ die?”

Danny stayed silent.

“Look Danno, something might happen to either of us; it’s part of the job. It’s part of life. Something might happen to Grace for that matter. Are you going to let that stop you from loving her?”

“That’s not the same.”

Maybe it wasn’t, but he really didn’t know how else-

“But maybe you’re right. So…where does that leave us?” Danny said tensely.

Steve grinned. “It leaves us matebonding.”

“Does it? Because I’m thinking I’m doing most of the bonding here Steven. I’m getting jealous and obsessed and fucking _needy_ and it seems to be pretty one-sided."

“It’s not. We’re _both_ forming a mating bond; you’re just doing it a little…faster…than I am.”

Danny turned around and looked at him, frustration written all over his face. “What does that even _mean_ Steve? Am I pushing a mating bond on you? Because I’ve done the whole unrequited thing before and I didn’t particularly enjoy it. So if you’re just going along with this, if this is some kind of fucking pity-”

“No! Jesus Danny, it’s not like that. I meant exactly what I said.  Yes, I’m bonding slower than you are, but it doesn’t have anything to do with me caring about you less, or wanting this less.  It’s more of a physical thing.”

“So, you’re saying you don’t-”

Steve rolled on top of Danny and slapped his hand over his partner’s mouth. “Shut up just for a few moments, okay?  Please? At least let me try to explain this. Bonding is not just an ‘I love you, you love me thing’ okay? It’s a biological thing, with pheromones and certain areas in our brains that get imprinted on our mates scent. Things actually change in there. Permanently.” He tapped Danny’s head, ignoring the resulting glare. “New nerve connections are being made. Feedback mechanism that have an impact on our hormones and that change our scent, which the other one picks up on and their brain reacts and… and I’m not a freaking neuroscientist so I don’t know all the specifics, alright? What I’m saying is, our brains are changing, and yours is just doing it a little faster than mine.”

He removed his hand from Danny’s mouth.

“Why?” Danny immediately asked. “I need to know why I’m doing this faster than you babe, because if for some reason this isn’t going to work, I need to know now, Steven. I can’t-” Danny’s voice broke and he awkwardly cleared his throat.

Steve rolled off of Danny and pulled him into a hug. Danny squeezed back hard enough to leave bruises. “It is working,” Steve reassured him. “We are bonding. And I have a theory about why we’re going at a different pace.”

“What theory?” Danny muttered against his neck.   

“I spent a long time, _years_ , trying not to end up mate-bonded to any of my navy buddies. You on the other hand, spent years _trying_ to form a mating bond with someone who couldn’t respond.”

Danny pulled out of the hug to look him in the eyes. “So, you’re saying my brain was like… raring to go, and yours is used to holding back?”

“Pretty much yeah.”

“It’s not because you don’t want-”

He cut Danny’s words off with a kiss. Just the soft pressure of lips on lips at first, but when Steve traced his tongue along Danny’s bottom lip, his partner made a soft helpless sound and opened up for him.

Danny tasted like he smelled…like _Danny_ …and like he was made for Steve.

When he finally pulled away he grinned down at his partner. “No Danny, it’s not because I don’t _want_. Give me a little time and I’ll be just as bad as you. Worse probably. You won’t be able to go anywhere without me following you and growling at people.”

“Neanderthal.”

“You love that about me.”

“No Steven, I’m pretty sure I don’t. I’m pretty sure I love you despite the Neanderthal ninja thing, and now I’m blaming the love part entirely on this bond.  Obviously without it I would have let that guy shoot you the very first day we met, if only to protect the world from your crazy.”  

Steve laughed and bent his head to nip at the sensitive skin of Danny’s neck. “Mate-bonding is not a ‘love at first sight’ thing, you know.”

“It’s not?”

“No.”

“Right.”

There was something about Danny’s tone that made him look a little closer. “Danny?” he prodded.

Danny studiously avoided his eyes. “Cause I think it might have been, a little, in my case, but then, I seem to be fucking all this shifter stuff up, so-”

Steve was a little bit flabbergasted. “Really?”

His partner gave him a sardonic look. “I let you _steal_ my crime scene, Steven. You _know_ me, do you really think you would have gotten away with that so easily if I hadn’t been just a little bit _off the ball_ so to speak? You let the governor swear you in with a freaking phone call and then expected me to simply go along with it!”

Danny whipped out an imaginary phone. “Yes, Captain Gantu? Experiment 626 has been spotted…yes sir…no sir…will do sir. Goodbye.” He clicked off his imaginary phone with a vicious stab into thin air and mimed putting it back in his pocket.

Steve raised an eyebrow. “Experiment 626?”

“Hang around Grace enough and you’ll learn.  Also, _not my point_ Steven.”

“Hey, I put it on speaker, you heard her.” 

“I heard a woman telling you she was Governor Jameson.”

Steve rolled his eyes. “You know the governor’s voice, Danny, you know it was her.”

“Hey, voices on the phone can sound different, alright? And for all I know it could have been a recording that you planned somehow. You’re crazy enough to do something like that. Also, you took it off the speaker right after I heard her name so the whole conversation that followed…could have been complete baloney!  My point is that, if I’d been in my right mind, I would have _insisted_ on going to see the governor. And that toolbox would have been firmly in _my_ possession until she confirmed, to my face, that she was transferring the case to you.”

Steve had to admit Danny had a point, now that he looked back at it, it really wasn’t like his partner to let stuff go so easily. What was the point of this conversation again? He had that a lot with Danny, having to think back on how a conversation started. _Oh yeah_. He grinned. “So, love at first sight, huh?”

"Shut up," Danny muttered, and pulled him back in for another kiss.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This chapter was difficult to write. I hope it didn't suck too much. After this one I think I'll do one more short chapter and then I might write a couple one-shots in the same universe. I'd like to do some short stories from Danny's point of view.


	10. Chapter 10

Steve responded eagerly. It was almost like he could feel the mating bond growing stronger the more they touched, which was utterly impossible of course. A true mating didn't happen that fast. 

He allowed himself one more kiss, one more swipe of his tongue against Danny’s, and then he pulled back, dropping down next to his partner, and pulling him close so they were spooning. 

They laid there quietly for a long time, enjoying the other’s presence, and Steve was close to falling asleep, when Danny spoke up. “Steve?”

“Yeah?”

“I’m hungry.”

Steve snorted. “I figured,” he said and squeezed his partner a little tighter before letting go and grabbing the small bag he’d taken from his backpack earlier. He upended it on Danny’s chest and grinned as his partner’s eyes lit up at the sight of the six energy bars. They were all different flavours, so there had to be something in there his partner enjoyed. 

“Dipped double chocolate…” Danny murmured, obviously pleased, “Crunchy peanut…” 

“You can eat them all, if you want. I have more.”

“I think I love you.”

“You better. Within a couple of months, maybe even weeks, we’re going to be mate-bonded. In other words, you’re going to be stuck with me.”

“Forever?”

“Forever.”

“I think I can live with that.”

“Me too.”

“Awww” Kono said from the other tent, loud enough for them to hear. 

Danny groaned. “Privacy is going to be hard to come by, isn’t it?”

“Yup,” Chin answered from his own tent. 

Steve snickered as Danny buried his face in the sleeping bag. “Night guys.”

“Good night,” the cousins echoed back. 

\---- 

“Alright Danny, you ready to try this again?” Steve looked at his partner, seeing none of the extreme reluctance from the day before. What he saw now was determination, and maybe even a little bit of excited anticipation. 

“Yeah,” Danny said, “let’s do this.”

Steve watched as Danny took a calming breath and closed his eyes. His naked form was lying on top of their sleeping bags, preparing for the change, and Steve felt honoured to be one of the very few people who had ever seen Danny shift.

His partner’s breathing became heavier and he was gritting his teeth, but there was no pained moaning this time when the shift finally happened. No scream. 

Almost as soon as the transformation was complete, Danny was lifting his head up to look at him, and Steve felt his lips stretch into a dopey smile. The shift was definitely less painful this time. If it got better this quickly it was likely that soon Danny wouldn't have any discomfort at all. 

Danny yipped at him, and Steve rolled his eyes at the clear ‘what the hell are you waiting for, hurry it up all already’ meaning behind it. 

Seconds later he was chasing Danny out of their tent.

\----

Later that day Steve changed back to prepare lunch and he watched happily as his three friends chased each other around the clearing. 

It was good seeing them all so carefree. This was one of the best days he’d had in a long time. They really should try to do this more often. Not just for Danny's sake, but for all of them. 

After seeing Kono bowl over Danny for the seventh time though, he wasn’t feeling as cheerful anymore.

Danny didn’t seem to mind getting body-slammed by Kono, but he was still clumsy, he could get hurt. Did she have to play that rough? For that matter, did she have to keep touching him constantly? She hadn’t done that with Steve and Chin, had she? She seemed almost obsessed, it-

“So, brah” Chin said from right next to him, almost making him jump, “what was that about you being slower?”

“What do you-”

“You’ve been glaring at my niece like she’s Wo fat himself.”

“Wha- ” And then it clicked. The reason for his irritation, the annoyance he felt any time Kono touched Danny. “Well shit.” If it was this bad already, this quickly... “We’re screwed.”

Chin grinned at him and patted his back. “Congratulations, brah.”

And when Chin didn’t immediately take his hand of Steve’s shoulder Danny proved wolves could glare just as effectively as humans.

There was no going back now, for either of them. And Steve didn’t mind one bit.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hey guys, sorry for how short this was, but it just feels like a proper place to end this story. Although I do plan on writing some one-shots in this universe. 
> 
> Also, it's thoroughly unlikely, but if anyone else ever wanted to play around in this AU, please do, because that would be the coolest thing ever.


End file.
